Speech and Debate Program

A host of Election 2012 events at SMU will offer opportunities for enlightenment, discussion and debate as election day approaches. Understand what makes presidents tick, analyze election issues and discuss the presidential debates at SMU events open to the community as well as students, faculty and staff.

A small sampling:

• Texas Faith Public Forum:Perkins School of Theology Dean William Lawrence will join a panel of journalists and North Texas pastors of diverse faith traditions to discuss how the 2012 election is helping to define the national interest. “Elections and the Common Good” begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in the Great Hall, Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall. The panel will be moderated by Dallas Morning News editorial columnist William McKenzie and senior political writer Wayne Slater of the newspaper’s Texas Faith blog.Free and open to the public.

• Presidential Debate Series: View the televised presidential debates in SMU’s O’Donnell Recital Hall, then participate in debates about them moderated by faculty and members of the SMU Speech and Debate Program. Events are scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 3, Thursday, Oct. 11, Tuesday, Oct. 16, and Monday, Oct. 22. All are free, and all begin at 7 p.m.

• Election 2012 Preview: Political science professors Cal Jillson, Dennis Simon and Matthew Wilson will discuss the trends, issues and voter groups critical in determining the outcomes of various races in a Godbey Lecture Series event Monday, Oct. 15. The 6 p.m. lecture will be preceded by a 5:30 p.m. wine reception; all events are held at Maggiano’s, NorthPark Center. The event is part of a Godbey series on Election 2012; the cost is $45 per lecture for Godbey Lecture Series members, $65 for nonmembers. Attend all three lectures for $135 (member price) or $195 (nonmember price). Register online or call 214-768-2532.

• The Economy and Election Outcomes: Which economic outcomes seem to matter most to voters? Do macroeconomic fluctuations exhibit cycles related to the electoral cycle? Economics professor Nathan Balke discusses economic implications for the November elections in “It’s Always ‘The Economy, Stupid’” – a Godbey Lecture Series event Monday, Oct. 29. The 6 p.m. lecture will be preceded by a 5:30 p.m. wine reception; all events are held at Maggiano’s, NorthPark Center. The event is part of a Godbey series on Election 2012; the cost is $45 per lecture for Godbey Lecture Series members, $65 for nonmembers. Attend all three lectures for $135 (member price) or $195 (nonmember price). Register online or call 214-768-2532.

• Election 2012 Analysis: Political science professors Cal Jillson, Dennis Simon and Matthew Wilson assess turning points in presidential and congressional campaigns and analyze voting results in this Godbey Lecture Series event Monday, Nov. 12. The 6 p.m. lecture will be preceded by a 5:30 p.m. wine reception; all events are held at Maggiano’s, NorthPark Center. The event is part of a Godbey series on Election 2012; the cost is $45 per lecture for Godbey Lecture Series members, $65 for nonmembers. Attend all three lectures for $135 (member price) or $195 (nonmember price). Register online or call 214-768-2532.

On Feb. 25, 2009, SMU and Wiley College kept an appointment made nearly 75 years ago. A debate team from Wiley – the historically black college in Marshall, Texas, that became famous with the 2007 film “The Great Debaters” – visited the University for a contest on the topic of whether to shut down the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

SMU extended the original invitation to Wiley in 1935; it would have been the first time a white school hosted a debate against a black college. But that debate was canceled, possibly because of Wiley coach Melvin B. Tolson‘s arrest for civil rights activism.

The SMU team won the 2009 competition, 3-0. Yet “just in having this debate we are all winners,” said Ben Voth, director of SMU’s Speech and Debate Program and associate professor of corporate communications and public affairs in Meadows School of the Arts. “We have overcome a history of racism and divisiveness.” Voth serves on the advisory board for Wiley’s debate program and has taught workshop seminars at Wiley to prepare the college’s new team.